“Completed Today 5” Plus Video of the ConText Preview Reading from “The Gathering of the Lost”

Completed Today:

Well, I’ve done it.

Today I revised and rewrote those last 25 pages and got to the final line of the GR (Great Revision) of The Gathering of the Lost. Tomorrow I’ll review the final two chapters that comprise Part 5 again and polish them up, but effectively the job is done and—allowing tomorrow for tidy up—with a day to spare on the 1 July deadline. Woot!

So, just to do today’s stats package properly :

25 pages revised and rewritten

2 final chapters completed

Part 5 completed

Total Pages Until Completion: 0 plus Glossary.

(Pssst: But really, I’ve been doing the glossary as I go along so there’s only a little bit of tidy up there to do, too.)

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Videos of the ConText “Preview” Reading from The Gathering of the Lost

To celebrate completion of The Gathering of the Lost by the 1 July deadline, I feel it is only fitting to bring you the ConText “preview” reading from The Gathering of the Lost today rather than Friday. The reading—even more fittingly 😉 —is taken from the prologue of the book.

Enjoy!

The Gathering of the Lost(The Wall of Night Book Two) is to be published in March 2012 in the US, UK, Australia & New Zealand.

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Final Competition Reminder:

Today is the final week of the month-long “Birthday of the Blog” competition for 3 sets of grand book giveways: Epic Fantasy, YA Fantasy, & NZ Poetry.

You can read the full details here. The competition closes tonight at midnight, NZ time. The results will be announced here on the blog on Saturday 2 (before midnight, again—NZ time.)

Thanks again, everyone—I got that reviewing and polishing done today and the full manuscript away so it’s definitely a “wrap.” I think a holiday is absolutely called for, but first I might have to spend a week playing catch up on all the tasks that have been ‘on hold’ while the book got done. A bit of garden and post-quake tidy up for starters–but the list is “quite” long! 🙁

Vanda–thank you for the gold medal! And congratulations on getting your book done, too. But you are so right, the catch up list is huge and includes such mundane tasks as house cleaning (properly, not a kind of a wink and a promise) and also cleaning out guttering, as well as vital ones like doing my tax return! Do you ever feel like to be a writer effectively one needs to go all Edwardian and be able to call on the services of a maid, a gardener and hanyman, and possibly a cook—although I enjoy cooking so much I don’t think I’d be willing to give that up! Add in a dedicated cohort of the Student Volunteer Army right now, just to be on hand for the recurring liquefaction dig-out! :-\

"THE HEIR OF NIGHT by Helen Lowe is a richly told tale of strange magic, dark treachery and conflicting loyalties, set in a well realized world."--Robin Hobb

Thornspell

Jacket art by Antonio Javier Caparo

Thornspell is my first novel and is published by Knopf (Random House Children's Books, USA). It won the Sir Julius Vogel Award 2009 for Best Novel: Young Adult and was a Storylines Childrens' Literature Trust Notable Book 2009.